The National Conference Center Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Steelcase’

Wouldn’t you like to know the future? As our October email states, we’ve seen it and we like it. In the fall white paper, “The Future of The Meetings Industry: Why Certain Conference Innovators Are Winning” we take a trip to the future and discover what meetings will be like in the next 10 years. Are you curious? We thought you’d be. Read the full white paper which features conference innovators from Steelcase and Adrian Segar, organizer of Event Camp East Coast and author of Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love.And, if you’re a planner and you love perks, don’t be shy about signing up for our monthly e-mail. We send deals, offers and resourceful tips.

Beginning this year, we’ve released a quarterly white paper in a series we’ve named Meeting Discoveries. The spring white paper as many of you may have read was The Science of Food for Thought: Enhancing Meetings Through Food and explored research by Andrea Sullivan, an organizational psychologist with a passion for the study of the brain including brain food and field studies by Executive Chef Craig Mason of The National Conference Center. Our summer white paper Understanding Generational Differences: The Key to Attracting, Motivating and Retaining Your Workforce with generational evangelists Ann Fishman and Jeffrey Vargas, conference director of education and engagement Jeff Hurt and human resources manager Ildiko Agoston focused on classrooms and learning strategies to appeal to each generation. By CEOs and trainers understanding generational differences they’re better able to satisfy their employees and as a result, obtain more business with happier customers.

A strong emphasis of space & design in the future of conferences – the common theme that resonated with each conference innovator was helping people connect with each other. We’ll answer – Why does space and design play such a large role in collaboration and learning? Discover the cool and modern designs for environments by Steelcase.

Traditional conferences will disappear - With lower satisfaction ratings and the ability to google or YouTube, attendees travel to a conference to network and learn material that’s of interest to them. Adrian Segar’s book will help you learn how to transition from traditional conferences – the white paper is a small peek into the concept of his book on peer conferences.

Abundance of space becomes important – Condon recommends a venue with space that can be anamorphic, in order to create “a palette of places.” Learn more about “a palette of places” in the white paper and how these “out of the box” concepts will make up the future of conferences.

Similar to Yelp, planners like businesses are listening – These three innovators rely on the feedback of conference evaluations to create a meeting that satisfies all. Meetings are steering away from the material transferred from planners to attendees in order to keep the conference material relevant and exciting.

No fear for conference centers or planners – Readers and planners may be pleasantly surprised to discover that social media isn’t driving face-to-face events away, but in fact creating a need for one-on-one interaction. Find out why people are attending for connections made.

For Steelcase, technology plays a role but isn’t the main focus,
instead the design focuses on collaborative learning.

You’ll be surprised to find out in the fall issue of our white papers series Meeting Discoveries that the future of conferences won’t focus on… technology. We interviewed three professionals in the meetings industry whom we consider to be conference innovators on current upcoming trends, the emphasis attendees are placing in their survey results and what’s most important in the future. A year ago, venues might have feared technology would take over and replace face-to-face meetings but according to these innovators, technology is important but doesn’t play an integral role in the future of learning. In fact, in the white paper (set to be published at the end of this month) you’ll discover that 70% of learning is believed to be a social interaction with others.

5 things you’ll discover in our fall white paper:

How conferences are changing to adapt to the needs of attendees – you might be surprised what a large emphasis is being placed on satisfying attendees to keep them returning each year.

Discover why attendees are currently traveling to conferences – one hint: it’s not what you planned in your conference agenda.

Find out what’s crucial for collaboration and learning – In order to increase collaboration and learning, know the unique traits of a setting that will help foster this at your conference.

Know what conference innovators predict long-term – If you’re afraid of social media or think it’s distracting, consider incorporating it now. It won’t play a large role, instead it’ll be considered a “birth-right,” similar to free Wi-Fi.

Understand the difference between traditional conferences and peer conferences – It’s the difference between active versus passive learning and will make significant difference in the future of your meeting success.

What do you predict as the future of conferences and meetings?Have you foreseen trends in the past that you were right about; if so what were they?